City College students from the course Marketing 215 are hosting an exhibit in the Luria Library until Nov. 23 about how advertisements have changed our lives.

“They had an assignment to identify ads that reflected changes in our culture last month and I was so impressed with the diversity and range of advertisements they brought in,” marketing instructor Marylove Thralls said. “I thought it would be great to share this with others and asked if they wanted to put together this exhibit.”

After reading the book “The 30-Second Seduction” by Barbara Gardner, the students from Marketing 215 – Gender Issues in Marketing – gathered ads and created a timeline of advertisements beginning in 1900 and continuing to the present.

The advertisements that are highlighted have been very important for the development of our society and that’s why the exhibition is called “Landmarks – Advertisements throughout history that have changed the world and the way we think.”

Marketing student Sandra Öjergren, who named the exhibition and created the promotional flyer, thinks that the exhibition is important for several reasons.

She said that commercials are a big part of our everyday life and whether we think about it or not, we are overwhelmed with the different messages through advertising.

“We don’t think that commercials affect us so much,” Öjergren said. “But the ads we have chosen are those which in one way or another have had big impact on us during its time.”

Each picture comes with a description that adds to the historical context and explains how that particular ad changed our cultural norms.

“Research tells us that the influence of marketing on gender is enormously powerful, and can often be very negative,” Thralls said. “For example, the rise in body dysmorphia in young girls is often attributed to the influence of today’s media that stresses thin body types are the ideal.”

Thralls is satisfied with her students’ final results and she believes that it’s important to identify what impact commercials have on us.

“It’s important to recognize how advertising has evolved over time and how things have been promoted in ways that shocked or disturbed, made us think about issues or impacted lifestyles,” she said. “This exhibition asks the question as to whether advertising influences culture, or if it’s the other way around.”